"Football. It's not a matter of life and death. It's more important than that," as Bill Shankly said.
The game - as is the case with so many other sports - was of course invented in this country, developing out of the 'rough football' games that were little more than a brawl with rules and the possibility of scoring - and which still exist in some parts of the country like Ashbourne in Derbyshire or Haxey in Lincolnshire.

There is even a surviving gentlemanly version, the Eton Wall Game, which gives a clue as to the public school origins of the modern game. It was old boys' teams and the universities who developed football, though the oldest team in the world - Sheffield FC - actually sprang from a cricket club.
The FA was formed in 1863, enabling the rules to be set - some games until then allowed carrying the ball, and the deliberate kicking of shins. With a common set of rules competition flourished, and in 1871 the FA Cup was born, the first international match - England v Scotland - the following year.

Football has become a huge part of our national story - national events like the White Horse cup final, England winning the world cup in 1966, and Celtic winning the European cup in 1967 engraved on our brains. But for most of us our allegiance is local, almost tribal, to the club nearest where we were born, or to which we have some other geographic or family connection. And that club becomes part of our family, its triumphs celebrated, failures and relegations mourned.